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It doesn’t get much more minimalist than the middle of Armenia in wintertime, which is where Vodka Lemon — both the film and the tiny roadside stand it’s named after — is set. The snowbound outside world is a vast white screen broken by occasional sticks of furniture, bundled figures, and a passing, beat-up bus or galloping horseman. Interiors are marked by equally empty spaces, since the characters, like Hamo, are forced to sell their belongings to survive. A white-haired survivor who looks like a very old Burt Reynolds, Hamo hopes his son in Paris will send money or his son in the village will get a job. In the meantime, he visits the cemetery to wipe snow from the scowling countenance of his wife on the headstone. There he very slowly introduces himself to the widow visiting the plot of her husband. Director Hiner Saleem, not unlike Aki Kaurismäki, has put together a series of elliptical, simple-looking scenes, but there’s a lot going on in these vacant frames. Absurdist but with a tender touch, the spirit is established with the first scene of an old flute player sledging in his brass bed through the snow. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it takes on a different flavor, like the title drink. Why is it called Vodka Lemon if it tastes like almonds? "That’s Armenia." In Armenian, Kurdish, Russian, and French with English subtitles. (90 minutes)
BY PETER KEOUGH
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